E 241 
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Copy 1 



WHO WAS THE 



COMMANDER AT BUNKER HILL ? 



■WITH RE^IARKS ON 



FROTHINGHxVM'S HISTORY OF THE BATTLE. 



S&'ft!) an SljjjjeitTri);. 



BY S. S W E T T 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, 

21, School Street. 

1850. 



WHO WAS THE 



COMMANDER AT BUNKER HILL? 



WITH EEMAKKS ON 



FROTHINGHAM'S HISTORY OF THE BATTLE. 



WiSiti) an ^(ppcntifv. 



BY S? S W E T T 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON, 

21, School Street. 

1850. 



'<^ 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 
S. S W E T T, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massacliust-tt:; 



/^sys^- 



COMMAND AT BUNKER HILL. 



Thirty-two years since, though Avithout any pretensions to 
be an author, we consented to write an account of Bunker 
Hill Battle, as a feeble contribution to the monument of fame 
that history owed our ancestors. But, we find, one may be 
be an author in spite of himself; we have been compelled to 
address the public repeatedly in defence of our history, 
though never before with so great reluctance. By this lime 
we hoped to enjoy the privilege of age, to exempt us from 
this task ; and, notwithstanding our friendly regards for 
Mr. Frothingham, and a high appreciation of his book for 
its intentional honor and honesty and successful research, we 
shall be obliged to notice at least one of his mistakes. For 
he is under the same ban as all our race : " to err is human." 
And were his mistake solitary, it Avould compensate for that 
by its magnitude, nay, its sublimity. According to him, the 
great Battle of Bunker Hill was fought, on our side, by a 
headless mob ; and, to prove this, he adduces the most incon- 
trovertible argument in the world, were it true, — that the 
army at Cambridge, which had been for two months collect- 
ing and organizing under the able and experienced Gen. 
Ward, assisted by a host of accomplished veteran officers, 
was itself a mob. He terms it, by a new-invented name, 
" an army of allies ; " a misnomer, calculated to mislead 
his readers in regard to its organization. On the files of the 



Provincial Congress, and by the Committee of Safety, it is 
termed the New England army ; and, in the gazettes of the 
day, the American army. Gen. Putnam, he says, would 
have been the commander in the battle, had the army been 
" regularly organized ; " but, because " it had not yielded to 
the vital principle of subordination," he was present as a 
patriotic volunteer. He has treated Gen. Putnam's charac- 
ter with the utmost candor and kindness, as animals destined 
for the altar are pampered, to be sacrificed at last. 

It will be our duty to enter into a thorough investigation 
of this subject of the command, though with great repug- 
nance, on account of its involving the rival claims of Putnam 
and Prescott. For both those heroes Ave entertain the most 
devoted admiration, and the deepest interest in their fame. 
Could we have imagined that any such discordant claims 
might be advanced, our history had never been commenced. 
In our numerous conversations with Judge Prescott on the 
subject, we never discovered their existence until our history 
was published. He had presented to the Athenaeum Gen. 
Heath's Memoirs, as a declaration, we presumed, that the 
statements in them relative to his father were correct ; and to 
Heath's opinions Ave subscribed. We have contented our- 
selves heretofore with a simple statement of the facts that 
Avere known relative to the command ; but an historian is 
bound to state the principles, as Avell as the facts, relative to 
the characters he introduces, and the legitimate conclusions 
resulting from those facts and principles, as much as a coun- 
sellor is bound to do so for his client. 

The author, in robbing Putnam of the command, " not 
enriches" Prescott, nor any one else. He does not intimate 
the possibility that Prescott may have been the commander 
of the battle : so far from it, he emphatically denies that he 
issued any order Avhatsoever on Buulvcr Hill, or at the rail- 
fence ; and states that he Avas one of the junior colonels in 
the army, that Col. Frye Avas an older oliicer and in the 
battle ; whilst he does not pretend that Prescott exercised, or 
had a right to exercise, any command over him, or over 
other colonels who Avere in the battle, and older officers than 



himself. He attributes to Prescott nothing more than a 
colonel's command over his detachment, which, by some un- 
accountable mislake, he computes at twelve hundred, whilst 
it is limited at one thousand by Col. Prescott himself, and 
all reliable authorities. He states that Prescott held councils 
of war ; but he ought to have added, that this Avas not at 
any time whilst Gen. Putnam was ia Charlestown ; and that 
they were confined to the junior officers of his detachment. 
He confines him during the battle to the redoubt ; and he 
might have added that it was impossible for him to have 
exercised any command through the line, because he was on 
foot ; though he does add one fact which is exceedingly im- 
portant, — that Prescott had but one hundred and fifty men 
left under his command at the redoubt,* during the baltle, as 
is stated by the colonel himself, and others who were with 
him ; and, in conclusion, he observes, that Prescott was left 
in the redoubt, during the battle, without the slightest inter- 
ference, control, or command from Gen. Putnam or any one 
else. Now, there never was, and never will be, any one to 
question or deny one tittle of these statements relative to 
Prescott; Ave subscribe to them implicitly. 

But the author has labored, throughout a large portion of 
his book, to prove the most insignificant abstraction that ever 
entered visiionary's imagination, — that Gen. Putnam pos- 
sessed no right to command Col. Prescott. Grant it; and it 
would not add one leaf to the laurels of Prescott, nor a 
single ray to the splendor of his fame. Nor, on the other 
hand, would Putnam lose by the concession. Grant to 
Putnam the command of all the rest of the battle, and all 
that is thus demanded for Prescott would constitute so insig- 
nificant an exception, as merely to illustrate the proverb, that 
the general rule is proved by the exceplion. 

Mr. Frothingham says nothing of any command at the 
breastwork, though, by describing it as reaching down to the 
slough, he has represented it as longer than it was, and has 
marred and obscured by this mistake one of the principal 

* The regular number to line the front of the redoubt would be 132. 



features of the battle. The breastwork did not reach down 
to the slough by six or seven rods ; which space was nearly 
or quite unprotected, as was the farther space of 190 yards 
between the breastwork and rail-fence, except by the slough, 
that did not reach back to the rail-fence by 80 yards. Now, 
this was the weak point and key to the American position, 
which the enemy were grossly culpable for not discovering, 
through their previous reconnoissances and knowledge of the 
ground. We did not discover, till we had written thus far, 
that the author had our own authority for his mistake, or 
rather our printer's. In our map of the battle, we have 
represented the fact correctly ; but in our text it stands, that 
the breastwork ran " to" instead of " toward " the slough. 

Taking for granted all the author says of Prescott, we 
should pass over the authorities he has accumulated concern- 
ing him, were it not that, left unexplained as they are by him, 
they may mislead his readers into the belief, that Prescott 
had command, not only of his detachment, but of the battle. 
We will go through the list. The report of the Committee 
of Safety says, " The commander of the party gave orders to 
retreat from the redoubt ; " and one of the writers of the 
the report is supposed to have called Prescott " the com- 
mander of the provincials." That is, Prescott commanded 
\he par/p, \\\e provincials, who raised ihe redoubt, and those 
of them who fought there under him, till he gave them orders 
to retreat. The author denies that he commanded any 
others : " Gen. Ward, in his leiter to President Adams, 30lh 
Oct. '75, says that Bunker Hill Battle was conducted by a 
Massachusetts officer." Ward was endeavoring to make 
out a strong case for the Massachusetts against the Southern 
officers. As he knew it was physically impossible for Pres- 
cou to have conducted the battle, because he was on foot, 
and militarily so, because there were generals and other 
officers older than Prescott on the field, he must have 
intended to designate himself or Warren as the conductor of 
the battle. Possibly he intended to claim the honor himself. 
The first syllable of the word " conducted " has been altered 
by the pen : he began perhaps to write the word " com- 



manded ; " but, recollecting that he could not claim the 
command, altered it into " conducted." And he was 
authorized to claim to have been the conductor of the battle, 
and to have conducted it with great skill and discretion. 

Mr. Frothingham thinks, that, " in a military point of view, 
it would be difficult to assign a just motive to either party 
for this conflict." We place in our Appendix the declaration 
of the proscribed patriot Adams on the subject, which will 
justify Gen. Ward, and satisfy every one on this point. 

But, notwithstanding Gen. Ward's use of the word " con- 
ducted," he probably intended to say that Warren was the 
conductor or commander of Bunker Hill Battle, knowing 
that he was on the field, vested with all the rights and 
authority of a major-general; — Avhich was literally true, 
notwithstanding Frothingham's mistake in supposing that 
Warren told Prescott, as a reason for not assuming the com- 
mand, that he had not received his commission. This is a 
mistake of fact and law: Warren, according to Gen. Heath, 
said not one word about his commission, and his want of one 
did not diminish his rights of office ; a point that has been 
settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. It 
was not so extraordinary for Ward to call Warren the com- 
mander, as for Gen. Humphreys to do so in his life of 
Putnam, whose Aid he had been. Both, doubtless, were 
ignorant of the fact, that Warren refused to exercise any 
command on the occasion. It was not generally known till 
published by Gen. Heath, twenty years after the battle. 
Martin the chaplain, who was present the night before and 
during the battle, says, " The Americans took possession of 
the hill under Prescott." This is taken by Frothingham 
from Stiles's Diary ; and the reason why Stiles does not 
quote Martin as saying they were under Putnam likewise is, 
doubtless, because he had just before entered the same fact 
in his diary from the all-sufficient authority of Gen. Green. 
Martin says, that he urged Prescott in vain to send for Put- 
nam and a reinforcement ; that Prescott and he differed, even 
to quarrel, about the reinforcements ; and that he ordered one 
of the men off himself to Gen. Ward, which brought Gen. 



8 

Putnam and a large reinforcement about noon. " Gordon 
!<ays one thousand men under Prescott intrenched ; Gen. Put- 
nam is busily engaged in aiding and encouraging here and 
there as the case requires." " Dr. Thatcher says, Prescott 
headed the detachment, and retained the command," that is, 
the command of it. Frothingham says this is unequivocal 
in favor of Prescott. Instead of that, Thatcher is une- 
quivocal in favor of Putnam's command, by placing him 
at the head of all the officers, in the following words : — 
" Generals Putnam, Warren, Pomeroy, and Col. Prescott 
were emphatically the heroes of the day." " Pitts says, it 
appears to me there never was more confusion and less 
command ; no one seemed to have any but Col. Prescott." 
" Gen. Heath says, Prescott was the proper commanding 
officer in the redoubt." And Heath says, and Frothing- 
ham in another place quotes it as an instance of a collision 
between Putnam and Prescott, that Putnam rode up to 
the redoubt, and told Col. Prescott that the intrenching 
tools must be sent off; and that Col. Prescott, though he 
remonstrated against it, obeyed the order. Gen. Lee, in his 
memoirs of the war in the Southern States, has what is called 
an obiter dictum, a few words foreign to his subject, in which 
he remarks that Gen. Howe found his enemy posted on 
Breed's Hill, " commanded by Col. Prescott." The author 
gives no explanation of Lee's words, nor does he claim that 
they mean any thing more than Prescott's command of his 
detachment and the redoubt on Breed's Hill. Lee quotes 
no authority, and w^as no authority himself. He knew 
nothing about the battle. His ignorance was so gross, that 
he says the Americans had no artillery. Lee states, how- 
ever, that Prescott received no promotion in the army of the 
United Colonies. It is impossible, then, that he could have 
been the commander of the battle. Judge Tudor throws no 
light on the subject : he says, " There was no authorized 
commander ; Col. Prescott appeared to have been the chief; " 
" the whole business appeared to have been conducted with- 
out order, or regular command." Our author adds the 
words of Col. Prescott's son : " Neither Gen. Putnam nor 



any other officer ever exercised or claimed any authority or 
command over Col. Prescott, or the detachment, before or 
in the battle." It follows not that they had no right to do 
so. The author attributes to Col. Scammans an anonymous 
note in a newspaper, written perhaps by the editor, saying, 
" As there was no general officer who commanded on 
Bunker Hill, was it not Whitcomb's duty to have been 
there ? " This probably meant early in the day when Scam- 
mans met Whitcomb, and Putnam was not on the hill. But 
the author omits to mention here, that in the same paper it 
appears from witnesses under oath, and not denied, that 
Scammans, during the battle, sent to Gen. Putnam, at 
Bunker Hill, to see if he was wanted, and that his regiment 
went to the top of Bunker Hill; " after which Gen. Putnam 
came up, and ordered the regiment to advance within hearing 
of Col. Scammans."* We have gone through Mr. Frothing- 
ham's list of authorities ; and in the whole of them there is 
not the shadow of an excuse for his conclusion, " that no 
general officer was authorized to command over Prescott 
during the battle." But, if these authorities were trumpet- 
tongued in support of his conclusion, it would remain one 
of those things which no evidence can prove. The author is 
deahng with hard characters : Ward, Warren, Putnam, and 
Prescott, are not rag babies, that an historian may bend and 
distort according to his fancy. The whole kingdom of Great 
Britain could not bend one of them. Yet, if this story be 
true, Ward, a stickler for the authority and dignity of officers 
according to their rank, imposed on Warren and Putnam the 
insulting restriction of fighting the battle, shorn of half their 
authority and command ; and these high-spirited and gallant 
heroes submitted to so ignominious a condition. Still worse ; 

* The author's mode of stating evidence, by this extract of a note out 
of a whole trial, equals the clergyman who fulminated the foUowdng text 
against the flaunting top-knots our foremothers wore on their heads : — 
" Top-knot, come down," leaving out the other words of " Let him on the 
house-top not come down." Colman, in his " Broad Grins," describes a very 
large man as three single gentlemen rolled into one : our author has contrived 
to roll up most of Scammans's oiRcers, who testify in his case, into a single 
witness. Page 164. 
2 



10 

ihey no sooner arrive, on the field than they deny their own 
agreement. Warren, in a shuffling answer to Prescott, 
impHes his right to the command, and makes a merit of fore- 
going it in favor of so distinguished a veteran ; while Putnam 
not only disavows his agreement, but has the atrocious folly 
to attempt to bully such an officer as Prescott out of his com- 
mand, who obeys him, however, without daring to assert his 
rights. This is certainly very strange history ; but, unless 
every word of it is true, the author's conclusion must be 
false. The author has taken no notice of Gen. Dearborn's 
declaration of Col. Prescott's conversation with him on this 
subject. Dearborn states expressly, that he was informed by 
Prescott that he sent to Putnam to come forward and exer- 
cise the command, as he could not do so for want of rank ; 
confessing thus that Putnam, while on the field, was fully 
entitled to be the commander. All the world knows that he 
did come forward and exercise the command most effec- 
tually, from the beginning to the end of the engagement. 

There may be some unwilling to believe that the. opinion 
of Mr. Frothingham is entitled to no weight ; but he, as well 
as myself, are writing on a subject technical and professional, 
belonging to the art of war, concerning which both of us 
confess we know little or nothing. He seems unable to dis- 
tinguish between a separate and an independent command. 
Were he writing on chemistry, he might perhaps exclaim, of 
a well-known fact, as he does about Putnam and Prescott, 
" It is impossible that two white things put together should 
make a black one ; " or in astronomy, that it is quite impos- 
sible the earth should have any movement of its own, while 
it was under control of Jupiter and the Sun. 

We have made the supposition of the author's fundamental 
error being solitary ; but errors, like misfortunes, never come 
alone. The lost traveller, who wanders from the right road, 
enters on a boundless field of aberration, and at every step 
plunges deeper into a chaos of mistakes. 

To prove that Putnam was not the commander, the author 
alleges that, in some cases, he was not obeyed as such. 
Now, we say with the utmost confidence, that, any few cases 



11 



of cowardice out of the question, no military despot ever 
was obeyed with more implicit subjection than Putnam was, 
throughout the battle, by every one, officers or men, from 
their enthusiastic love and admiration of him, and boundless 
confidence in him, as a great, experienced, and fortunate 
hero and patriot. 

The first case he imagines to have been an instance of dis- 
obedience is that of Col. Sargent, whom he charges with 
disobeying Gen. Putnam's order for him to go on to Bunker 
Hill.* This injustice to the reputations of Putnam and Sar- 
gent arises from the most inconceivable misconstruction of 
Col. Sargent's letter to us, the only document on the subject. 
Col. Paul Dudley Sargent refuse to go on to Bunker Hill, or 
any other battle-ground ! He was one of the greatest fire- 
eaters of the revolutionary army. Gen. Washington ob- 
served, that, in all his councils of war, whenever he proposed 
any measure which his other officers thought too desperate to 
be undertaken, Sargent always voted for its execution. f 
Had the author ever heard of the man, or made the slightest 
inquiry among his relatives in Boston, he would never have 
imagined the possibility of such an imputation. Had Put- 
nam ordered him on to Sinai's hill, with all its fires, he would 
not have hesitated, had there been fighting there. 

Whilst Col. Sargent was at Cambridge, his regiment, and 
that of Connecticut, were stationed under the immediate 
command of Putnam at Inman's farm, the most exposed and 
important post of the army, near which place the enemy had 
landed at the time of Lexington Battle. During the Battle 
of Bunker Hill, both these regiments were like " greyhounds 
on the slip," earnestly entreating of Gen. Ward for permis- 
sion to join in the conflict. But, apprehending the enemy 
would land at the same place again to assail him, he Avould 
not grant them permission, until it was too late for Col. Sar- 
gent to participate in the battle. When he arrived at 
Charlestown, the battle was over ; our troops had retreated ; 
and Sargent found Putnam, Avith all he could rally, on top 

* Page 168. Note 1. t Hon. Daniel Sargent. 



12 

of Prospect Hill, where, in hot haste, he Avas throwing up 
intrenchments, often laying some of the sods himself to 
encourage his men. The day afler the battle, he observed 
that for three days he had neither Avashed nor changed his 
clothes. But, though the battle was over, Sargent could not 
deny himself the satisfaction of scenting the British Lion. 
He lingered under the enemy's cannonade till every one of 
his men had run away, and he himself was wounded, when 
he returned to Cambridge. Putnam, in defiance of Ward's 
orders, who, notwithstanding his urgency, had always re- 
fused him permission, Avas fortifying Prospect Hill, and sent 
repeatedly for Sargent to join him, which he declined ; but 
Avhy he does not intimate. He might have exposed himself 
to a court-martial by a compliance. These are all the facts 
the author has for the assertion, that Sargent disobeyed Put- 
nam's order to go on to Bunker Hill. It is simply and 
palpably impossible that any such order should have been 
given or disobeyed. (For more of Sargent, see Appendix.) 
The only other instance in the author's book of Putnam's 
being disobeyed, to make good his allegation that such cases 
existed, is that of Capt. Callender of the Artillery. If any- 
thing could be more wonderful than the author's mistak- 
ing one hill for another, Avhen both have been before his 
eyes from his birth, it would be his adducing this case as one 
of disobedience, or a case of any kind to disprove that Put- 
nam Avas the commander. And it is quite as extraordinary 
that he should refer to a newspaper for the facts in Callen- 
der's case, when he had before him a complete statement of 
them in the report of a committee to the Massachusetts Con- 
gress ; a report from Avhich he has extracted only five Avords, 
saying that Putnam ordered Callender to go back, though it 
is so important in a description of the battle, and especially 
for the fame of Gen. Putnam, that any historian Avho 
neglects it commits a most unfortunate mistake. This com- 
mittee say, " We applied to Gen. Putnam and other officers, 
Avho were in the heat of the engagement, for further intelli- 
gence. Gen. Putnam informed us, that, in the late action, 
as he Avas riding up Bunker Hill, he met an officer in the 



13 

train, drawing liis cannon down in great haste; lie ordered 
the officer to stop and go back ; he replied, he had no 
cartridges; the general dismounted, and examined his 
boxes, and found a considerable number of cartridges, upon 
which he ordered him back ; he refused until the general 
threatened him with immediate death ; upon which he 
returned up the hill again, but soon deserted his post, and 
left the cannon." Now, this is the strongest case imaginable, 
not of disobedience, but compulsory obedience. Callender 
obeyed Putnam to the letter, as the committee say ; he 
deserted his post afterwards. And we ask the author 
whether this conduct of Putnam was that of a volunteer. 
But allow the author to make his own case regardless of 
facts.* Suppose Callender disobeyed Putnam, and that it 
was for this he was condemned, instead of cowardice only, 
as he was, this imaginary case would be worse than the real 
one for the author and his argument ; it would give us the 
sentence of the court-martial to prove that Putnam was his 
commander. As if purposely to declare he did not think 
any thing relative to Putnam deserving of ordinary care or 
attention, he says, " This report states Callender Avas riding 
down the hill," when there is not a syllable of the kind. 
The author has racked his fancy to discover other objections 
to Putnam's having the command, that are as groundless as 
the foregoing. He objects, that, if Putnam had been the 
commander, he would have boasted of it in his letter to the 
town of Cambridge, in which he claims the merit of having 
saved that place from the incursion of the enemy, after the 
batde, by erecting fortifications on Prospect Hill. In the first 
place, the argument proves too much : it would prove that he 
was not the commander in the battle at Chelsea ; for he does 
not mention that in his letter ; and he had more reason to 

* The author's declaration, that Callender was tried for disobedience, 
27th June, seems to be a poetic license. Ward orders the coiirt-martial at 
that time, without the slightest intimation of such a charge. Fearing our 
readers' incredulity, we have omitted liitherto another of our author's mis- 
takes : he sometimes, like St. Patrick, carries his head under his arm, instead 
of wearing it on his shoulders. 



u 

boast of that, than of Bunker Hill Battle, to the people of 
Cambridge, who would have thanked him for nothing in 
regard to the latter. It Avas he who, with Prescott, had 
urged on that battle for the good of the country, but at the 
imminent risk of Cambridge, and brought on them the very 
danger to which he alluded. But he had a better reason for 
not mentioning either of those battles. He was not a brag- 
gadocio. The author's next objection is, that Putnam did 
not at the time publicly claim to have been the commander. 
Putnam claim the honor of the command, when all the world 
at that time agreed in attributing it to the martyred Warren ! 
"Putnam's generosity was singular;" "he Avas generous 
almost to a fault." Was he the man to pluck from the 
bloody brow of Warren the crown of honor, for the nominal 
command of Bunker Hill Battle ? — from Warren, whom he 
adored as a patriot, and loved as a friend and brother ; Avho 
had just stood by his side at the cannon's mouth at Chelsea 
and Bunker Hill ? In the bosom of his family, he declared 
the bare idea was abhorrent to him. In that sanctuary, 
however, he did not hesitate to declare that he was the com- 
mander. 

The author represents President Stiles as stating, in his 
Diary, 20th June, as one among various rumors from camp, 
that Gen. Putnam took possession of the hill the night before 
the battle ; and that Stiles, on 23d June, after receiving ad- 
ditional information from those who had seen Gen. Putnam, 
enters in his Diary " that Putnam Avas not on the hill at the 
beginning." The author has no right to introduce the 
second entry to contradict the first, because he knoAA^s that, 
if it does so, it is false ; for he has slated himself that Put- 
nam Avas present at the begiiming of the intrenchment. For 
the same reason he cannot adduce it to prove Putnam Avas 
not present at the beginning of the battle. But there is no 
contradiction between these entries : both of them are true. 
President Stiles Avas not a man to contradict himself; his 
meaning is perfectly clear ; he is speaking of the 17tlT June, 
and says Putnam Avas not present at the beginning, that is, 
the beginning of the contest by the enemy's cannonade at 



15 

daylight. But who would imagme, that, instead of any 
rumors, as the author calls them, on which Stiles makes his 
first entry, Stiles says not one syllable of any rumor ? So far 
from it, he states expressly and distinctly that William 
EUery, the leading man of Rhode Island, and well-known 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, had just shown him 
a copy of a letter from Gen. Greene at Roxbury, second to 
no one in the army except Washington, and a copy of 
another letter from the Committee of Supplies [of R. Island 
at Roxbury] ; and that Gen. Greene said. Gen. Putnam took 
possession and intrenched on Bunker Hill, Friday night, 
16th inst. ; " and that Gen. Ward said, the enemy's loss Avas 
three times as great as ours." " Greene," Styles says, 
" seemed to doubt this at first ; but, from after-inquiry, and 
considering that Putnam fired from the trenches, and that it 
was said the dead of the enemy covered an acre of ground, 
Gen. Greene seemed rather to credit the estimate." The 
Chamber of Supplies says, " The king's troops attacked 
Gen. Putnam, who defended himself with bravery, till over- 
powered and obliged to retreat." Now, these accounts alone 
settle the whole question of Putnam's command for ever. 
Instead of being base metal to be stigmatized as rumors, 
they are sterling gold, and stamped at the highest mint in 
America. 

We have gone through the objections of the author to 
Putnam's claims, as we did through his positions in favor of 
Prescott's, and demonstrated them all to be groundless. We 
repeat that we have done this with the greatest repugnance, 
not only from our personal respect for the author, but 
because we may be suspected of doing so from rivalry. But 
the author will bear us Avitness, that we did all in our power 
beforehand to render his history as perfect and correct as pos- 
sible, for the very purpose of avoiding the necessity of writing 
again on the subject. Whence his invincible prepossession 
against Putnam's claims it is useless to inquire ; but he 
acknowledges the assistance of a number of gentlemen, who, 
as well as he and myself, belong to Massachusetts ; and Ave 
must all acknoAvledge our natural and instinctive preference 



16 

and partiality in favor of an officer of our own Commonwealth. 
This is fearful odds against Putnam ; but, in his long warfare 
for his country, he came off triumphant in many a desperate 
conflict while living ; and his hard-earned reputation may 
suffice to gain him one victory more, though he is dead. In 
the fable of the lion painted by man, the lion complains that 
man is the painter instead of himself. Putnam, the lion of 
Connecticut, might well complain that Ave men of Massa- 
chusetts are drawing a picture of him in Bunker Hill Battle. 
But happily for the moral of that fable, three other lions of 
Connecticut, Stiles, Dwight, and Whitney, have done the 
same ; and their picture of him is much more life-like than 
Frothingham's. 

We are delighted to discover, at last, something amusing 
in one of the author's mistakes, to relieve this dry and 
dolorous discussion. He says, Putnam had the command of 
a regiment, because he Avas complimented Avith the empty 
title of colonel of a particular regiment, or rather the regi- 
ment Avas complimented by bearing the name of the nominal 
colonel according to the etiquette and fashion of that day. 
But this gave the nominal colonel no more right of command 
over it, than my signing myself the author's humble serA^ant 
gives him a right to call on me for menial service. The regi- 
ment, in these cases, had a full compliment of officers in 
command, exclusive of the nominal colonel. The King of 
Prussia paid the same compliment to the King of France, by 
making him a colonel of one of his regiments ; and even the 
Virgin Mary Avas appointed by Louis XI. the colonel of a 
regiment. 

We are at a loss to account for the author's hallucination : 
perhaps, being an antiquarian, he has adopted the odd notion 
of our ancestors, that some men are born for perdition, 
whose good deeds are filthy rags, and all efforts to saA'e 
them useless ; in fact, that Putnam Avas one of those cul- 
prits described in our common-laAv code as outlaws, Avho 
wear wolves' heads, " caput lupinnm,^^ and Avhose brains it 
is the duty of every one to beat out. He seems to imagine, 
that the head of the Avolf Putnam slew in the cavern may by 



17 

some legerdemain have been transferred to his shoulders ; 
and it must be acknowledged there are some who appear 
to be of that opinion. 

Putnam was a large, strong, muscular man, with an open, 
bold, determined countenance, and a large head, with full 
broad forehead and brain, proclaiming prodigious power and 
energy of mind to govern and direct, and passion to impel. 
As a farmer-boy, born and brought up in Essex, Massachu- 
setts, one of the most enlightened counties in America, he 
must have partaken of the universal cultivation around him, 
though his schooling was confined to a few winter weeks 
annually. Before the Revolution, he had been many years 
in the army, in continual desperate battle on the continent 
and in the West Indies, and fought his Avay up from captain 
to a colonelcy. For particular accounts of him, we refer to 
the biographies, eulogies, and histories that mention him. 
Frothingham has given us the flattering eulogies on him by 
Gen. Reed, than whom a more intelligent officer was not 
under Washington. The late eminent scholar, John Picker- 
ing, sent us an eulogy upon him, from the English Annual 
Register, which he thought was written by the great Edmund 
Burke. Gen. Dearborn says, " The universal popularity of 
Putnam at the commencement of the Revolution was such as 
can scarcely now be conceived, even by those who tlien felt 
the whole force of it." Gen. Burbeck says, " He was the 
great gun of the day." President Dwight, and no one knew 
him better, says he was " a man whose generosity was sin- 
gular, whose honesty was proverbial ; a hero who dared to 
lead where any dared to follow." But Washington has 
stamped on Putnam the fiat of fame. The first moment he 
met him on Prospect Hill, he paid him a flattering compli- 
ment, " that he inspired every man under him with his own 
energy and spirit;" and he pronounced various eulogies 
on him up to the moment of bidding him his last farewell. 
Their mutual confidence and friendship were uninterrupted, 
except for an instant, Avhen Washington thought Putnam 
was desirous of doing more than his share of the fighting. 
Washington called for part of the troops of Putnam, who 



18 



waited to entreat permission to head them first against New 
York, as he had before against Boston. Washington, though 
his mihtary sternness was as gigantic as all his other good 
qualities, rebuked him with more forbearance than he ever 
exhibited on a similar occasion. He was more severe on 
Hamilton for a shght want of punctuahty, when he said to 
him, " You must change your watch, or I must change my 
Aid." * 

But the appointment of Putnam as Brigadier-General by 
Connecticut, and Major-General by the Federal Congress, 
over the heads of many most respectable officers, would prove, 
without any of these notices, that no other officer could 
have been selected as the commander of the battle, as he had 
been on three very conspicuous occasions before. If com- 
mander there was, he must have been the commander ; and 
" that there was, all nature cries aloud." Since the world 
began, in all history or natural history, there never was a 
battle known without a commander. It is the instinct of all 
animated nature, insect, animal, or man ; from the bee to the 
buffalo, from the Indian savage to Gen. Taylor. Milton's 
battles of the angels were fought under Michael and Satan 
as the commanders. 

Our next incontrovertible proof that Putnam was the com- 
mander is founded on the fact, that the army at Cambridge 
was regularly organized and consolidated under Ward, 
Warren, Putnam, and other ' officers in regular gradation, 
without any distinction in regard to the colonies Avhence the 
troops came. The author acknowledges, if this was the fact, 
that Putnam was the commander ; Ave take him at his word, 
and will make this so clear, that he who runs may read. 
The question is one of fact only, as regards both the army 
and Gen. Putnam ; Avhether the army Avas, in fact, a consoli- 
dated and organized body, and Avhether Putnam Avas com- 
mander of the battle de facto. Whether all this Avas 
technically legal and constitutional is a question as abstract 
and useless as that other of the author's, Avhether Putnam 

* For an interesting description of Putnam, see Appendix. 



19 

had any right to command Prescott ; and more hopeless : it 
is almost on a par with that of free agency, or the origin of 
evil. It would be as preposterous to deny that Putnam was 
the commander, even if the army was not a legal one, as for 
British historians to have denied that Washington was the 
commander in the battles he fought, because they said he 
was not a legal commander, and Gen. Howe said he was no 
General, only Mr. &c. ; though he found to his sorrow, that 
Washington and Putnam both were generals, and out-gene- 
ralled him, — Putnam at Bunker ^Hill, and Washington ever 
afterwards. There is poor encouragement for any one to 
enter into this question of the legality of the organization 
of the army, when Pres. Adams, sen. and Judge Tudor 
failed mider it so egregiously. They both jumped into this 
quickset hedge, and the author shuts his eyes and follows 
them. The result is, Pres. Adams doubts whether any one 
was authorized to command the troops of all the colonies ; 
and whether any one, except the old militia Gen. Pomeroy, 
a volunteer with no command over an individual in Cam- 
bridge, had a right to command the troops of Massachusetts. 
Judge Tudor doubts with him. The author is positive that 
the army was one of allies only, and Putnam a mere volun- 
teer. Putnam was no more a volunteer than the Avhole army 
at Cambridge was a volunteer army, or than the govern- 
ments of the colonies Avho sent the troops there were 
volunteer governments ; and they were in fact mere govern- 
ments de facto, without constitutions, or conventions to form 
any. New Hampshire, rather the worst off in this respect, had 
two separate governments, — the royal, under the very popu- 
lar and conciliatory Gov. Wentworth ; and the rebel, under a 
convention ; and both were in operation for a month after the 
battle. But just as much legality and constitutionality as 
there was in these governments, so much there was in the 
consolidation and organization of the army under Gen. 
Ward. The facts were perfectly well known to all three of 
the colonies, and their tacit consent and approbation was as 
binding on them as if it was expressed by their regular enact- 
ments enrolled and recorded. 



20 

The author omits, in his extracts from Adams's letter, far 
the most interesting and important part of it, as it regards 
the subject, and especially Putnam's claims. Adams thinks 
his objections to the legality of the army extend to it, and to 
Washington, when he took command. Now, this fortunately 
gives us the conclusive authority of Washington, to show 
that all these legal subtleties are of no practical importance. 
Adams doubts Avhether the army was sufficiently organized 
to authorize Washington to try by courts-martial the delin- 
quents in the battle. But Washington did not hesitate a 
moment to cut this Gordian knot. He brought Mansfield, 
Gerrish, Scammans, and all other delinquents, before courts- 
martial ; and made Gen. Greene, of Rhode Island, the presi- 
dent of them, as if for the express purpose of declaring his 
opinion, that this colonial question did not affect in the 
slightest degree the organization of the army, or the authority 
and liabiHties of the officers. Our author labors to make out 
an argument against Putnam's command, by showing that 
there was more legality and intimacy in the connection of the 
New Hampshire troops with the rest of the army, than in that 
of the troops from Connecticut. So complete was the union 
of the Connecticut troops with the rest of the army, that 
Putnam could not obtain Ward's permission to take the Con- 
necticut regiment to Charlestown the night before the battle, 
though he strenuously urged it. The most he could obtain 
was two hundred of them ; and they were placed under the 
command of Prescott, who had likewise a company from 
New Hampshire (Capt. Dow's) under his command. Could 
any thing be more conclusive as to the consolidation of the 
army ? We have the pay-rolls of New Hampshire to prove, 
that her troops were adopted and paid by her from the first 
moment they went to Cambridge. On the side of Connec- 
ticut this union was not only expressed by the manner in 
which their officers were detailed for duty by Ward ; but he 
placed under the immediate command of Putnam, Patter- 
son's Massachusetts and Sargent's New Hampshire regi- 
ments, in addition to one from Connecticut, at Inman's Farm, 



21 

the most exposed and important outpost of the army.* And 
the very important action was fought, and the victory 
achieved, under the command of Putnam, the 27th of May, at 
Chelsea. On the 13lh May, all the troops at Cambridge 
marched under the command of Putnam to Charlestown, and 
defied the enemy under the very muzzles of their guns. Lieut.- 
Col. Huntington writes to Gov. Trumbull from Cambridge, 
27th April: " Gen. Ward being at Roxbury, Gen. Putnam is 
commander-in-chief at this place." Now, how is it conceiv- 
able, that the author, after narrating these three striking cases 
of Putnam's command over all the troops, and after this 
overwhelming evidence of the complete coalescence of these 
troops, should a few days after, when Putnam appears again 
with the army at Bunker Hill, turn to the right about face, 
like lightning, and deny that he could possibly command, 
because it was an army of allies ? 

The organization of the army at Cambridge, just before 
the battle, was as follows : Two full regiments, under Stark 
and Reid, and another small one under Sargent, from New 
Hampshire, and one full regiment from Connecticut under 
Lieut. -Col. Storrs, immediately after the battle of Lexington, 
about two months before that of Bunker Hill, came to Cam- 
bridge, and voluntarily united themselves with the army 
under Major-Gen. Ward. All these troops previous to the 
battle, as we stated in our history of it, in the very words, 
we believe, of Gov. Brooks (Maj. Brooks, of Ward's army), 
were regularly organized and consolidated, and the routine 
and operations of a regular army were performed by them 
precisely as though they had been all of one province. The 
following extracts from Gen. Ward's orderly book will put 
this beyond dispute : — April 22, he orders Col. Stark to 
march to Chelsea with three hundred men. May 2, he 
orders Maj. M'Clary, of the same regiment, to keep a vigi- 
lant look-out as far as Winter Hill. June 6, Lieut. -Col. 
Storrs is officer of the main guard. June 7, Maj. Durkee 
officer of the picquet guard. Similar appointments of the 

* Col. Putnam's Letter. 



22 

Connecticut troops are made repeatedly ; and, on the 12th of 
June, Ward orders a court-martial with Col. Frye, president, 
and other officers of Massachusetts, united with Coit and 
Keyes, and Jos. Trumbull, judge advocate, all of Connecti- 
cut. Here, then, we have a demonstration, as clear as were 
it mathematical, of the complete union and coalition of the 
whole army, not only with their own consent, but with the 
sanction and approbation of their several provinces, to whom 
all this was known. But allow the gentleman, as in regard 
to Callender, to manufacture his OAvn case, grossly regard- 
less of all known facts. Allow that these New England pro- 
vinces, who had always lived like brothers under one general 
government, should, when their object, danger, and enemy 
were one, be so discordant and repulsive, that each provin- 
cial corps, even in battle, must be insulated, he would not 
be one step nearer to his object. Is it possible he is 
ignorant that allies, as he calls them, when in military detach- 
ments, must be under the command of the oldest allied 
officer, who ranks the rest ? This is so perfectly settled, that 
it would be burning daylight to prove it. 

We have thus proved a second time, from the nature 
of the army, and the rank of Putnam, according to the 
author's own acknowledgment, that Putnam was the com- 
mander of the battle. We now proceed to prove it a 
third and fourth time, by his conduct in the battle, and the 
evidence in the case. Our troops were Avell fed at Cam- 
bridge, through contributions from the New England towns, 
who thought, with the old general, that men fought best 
on full stomachs : but, after waiting two months, they grew 
impatient for fighting ; and Putnam's whole soul was with 
them. Notwithstanding Ward's prudence, Putnam per- 
suaded him at last to grant him two thousand men to 
meet the enemy. The heights of Charlestown were carefully 
reconnoitred by Putnam, fascines and empty casks were pre- 
pared for intrenchmenis, and all the intrenching tools far 
and near Avere collected ; but enough only could be found 
for one thousand men, and Prescott's detachment was limited 
to that number from necessity ; but they Avere to be relieved 



23 

in the morning by an equal number in their places. The 
still more important preparation of gunpowder was anxiously 
attempted, though nearly in vain. During the turmoil of the 
day of battle, Putnam called on the Committee of Safety to 
receipt for eighteen barrels of powder from Connecticut. 
He went on to Breed's Hill the night before the battle, and 
assisted in laying out the intrenchments.* He likewise took 
his small soldiers' tent on to the ground, and Capt. Trevett 
says it was erected. This shows a " foregone conclusion," that 
he was to be indissolubly connected with the expedition, and 
all its consequences. But, Avhat was still more in the spirit 
of the man, he prepared for himself a relay of horses for the 
battle ; and nothing more difficult : even Col. Prescott could 
not find one for Maj. Brooks to ride to Cambridge, though he 
endeavored to press one from the artillery. Putnam was the 
only officer mounted in the battle, unless Maj. Durkee was 
part of the time, as one of the documents relates. Durkee 
had been his intimate associate in the previous war, as he was 
through that of the Revolution. By daylight on the morn- 
ing of the battle, Putnam sent to Gen. Ward for a horse, 
and procured another himself; he seemed to consider this as 
important as Richard did, when he exclaims, " My kingdom 
for a horse." He went to Breed's Hill the night before the 
battle ; and this he did under the express agreement with 
Gen. Ward that he was to do so, and to have the direction 
and superintendence of the Avhole expedition. For the 
minute detail of Putnam's conduct relative to the battle and 
connection with it, we refer to our history and notes. The 
Avell-known, honorable, and intelligent Col. Putnam, son of 
the general, who observes he was with the army at the time 
of the battle, and afterwards an officer under his father till 
near the close of the war, and during his whole life frequently 
conversed on the subject of the battle with his father and all 
others, wrote a memoir, which he communicated to the Monu- 

* Frothingham says there was another anonymous j^eneral there. No 
other army general was there ; and, if a militia one v,as, tTiough of no 
importance, we should have heard of it, from some one of the mass of wit- 
nesses who were present. 



24 

ment Association. Putnam, he says, early urged Ward 
to have the heights of Charlestown fortified, who, with War- 
ren, objected the want of powder and battering cannon. 
Ward hoped for peace and reconcihation with the enemy, 
and wished to continue on the defensive. Putnam said we 
should gain peace only by the sword, and he wished only 
to draw out the enemy so as to meet them on equal 
terms. He frequently reconnoitred the heights ; and, just 
before the battle, Ward agreed to put t.wo thousand men 
under him to form intrenchments and defend them. Gene- 
ral Putnam went with half this force to Breed's Hill the 
night of the 16th, repairing at dawn to Cambridge for 
the other thousand to relieve the fatigue-party ; but the 
cannonade of the enemy called him instantly back. Gov. 
Brooks went on to the ground with Gen. Putnam, and was 
present whilst he assisted in laying out the works. Col. 
Trumbull, with the army at the time, says the detachment 
went under the command of Gen. Putnam and Col. Pres- 
cott. Judge Grosvenor, an officer of the army at the time, 
and in the detachment, says " Putnam was with them; and, 
under his immediate superintendence, ground was broken 
and the redoubt formed ; and that he commanded the troops 
engaged afterwards." Pres. Stiles, of New Haven College, 
recorded in his Diary, that Putnam took possession of Bunker 
Hill the night of the 16th. Pres. Dwight, of the same col- 
lege, says Putnam was the commander of the battle. Rev. 
Dr. Whitney, the pastor and most intimate friend of Gen. 
Putnam, states explicitly Gen. Putnam's own declaration to 
him, that the detachment was at first put under his com- 
mand, and that with it he took possession of the hill, and 
ordered the battle from the beginning to the end. " These 
facts," he says, " Gen. Putnam himself gave me soon after 
the battle, and also repeated them to me after his life [by 
Humphreys] was printed." This is in a note of Dr. Whit- 
ney to his funeral discourse on Gen. Putnam, 1790, and 
repeated in his letter, 1818. Col. Putnam, in his letter to 
me, confirms Dr. Whitney's declarations as to his father's 
assertions. Frothingham thinks they may have mistaken the 



25 

general's meaning. Col. Putnam's reasons for his accurate 
recollections, we have given. Dr. Whitney says, " Soon 
after Bunker Hill Battle, I was at Cambridge some weeks 
chaplain to Gen. Putnam's regiment, resided in his family, 
and had peculiarly favorable opportunities of learning, from 
him and others, in detail, the things which took place in the 
battle from its beginning to its end." Dr. Aaron Dexter 
says, from memoranda written at the time, that he was in- 
formed by the offiqers at Ward's quarters the 'day after the 
battle, that Putnam had command of all the troops that were 
sent down over-night, and that might be ordered there the 
next day. Col. Bancroft, the distinguished captain in the 
redoubt, says he was at the laying-out of the works by Put- 
nam, and that the rail breastwork was formed and lined 
under the direction of Putnam. John Boyle, Esq. of Bos- 
ton, who was aide-de-camp to Gov. Hancock, in the expedi- 
tion to Rhode Island, writes in his Diary, 16th June, 1775 : 
" Gen. Putnam, with a detachment of about one thousand of 
the American forces, went from Cambridge, and began an 
intrenchment on an eminence below Bunker Hill." Col. 
Samuel Ward, of Rhode Island, then a captain in the army 
at Roxbury, writes, 20th June : " Putnam had a sore battle 
on Saturday." Ethan Clarke writes to Capt. Ward, " We 
hear that Putnam is defeated, and Dr. Warren slain." The 
most astonishing inadvertence of the author, though mere 
inadvertence we believe, is his publishing two pages out of 
Rivington's Gazette of 3d August, 1775, and never hinting, 
that in the same paper of 29th June, 1775, it is stated that 
" Putnam on the evening of the 16th inst. took possession of 
Bunker Hill, and began an intrenchment ; " and this extract 
from Rivington was mentioned in a publication of ours, which 
he had among our documents. Josiah Cleveland's* depo- 
sition says he was of Putnam's regiment ; went on the night 
of the 16th, Putnam at their head, who with others directed 
the works, and ordered the Connecticut and some Massachu- 

* Of Canterbury. All the names we give are of the highest respecta- 
bility : from their residences any one may inquire. 
4 



26 

setts troops to make the breastwork at the rail-fence. Abner 
Allen,* of the same regiment, in his deposition, says he went 
on the night before the battle ; Putnam was then and there 
called general, and acted as such. Major Daniel Jackson, 
16th June, 1775, then a sergeant in the artillery, entered in 
his Diary, " Gen. Putnam with the army went to intrench on 
Bunker Hill." Trevett, senior captain of the artillery, the 
day of the battle, inquired officially of Maj. Gridley, then in 
command ofall the artillery at Cambridge, and whose father 
was inferior to no one in the councils of war, " Who had the 
command of the troops ? " and was informed by him, " Gen. 
Putnam." " Then there is nothing to fear," he observed at 
the time. He consequently applied to Putnam for orders, 
and received them. We have mentioned Putnam's com- 
mand over three regiments from different provinces ; and that, 
while " Gen. Ward was at Roxbury, Gen. Putnam was 
commander-in-chief" at Cambridge. Gen. Dearborn,! who 
was in the battle, represents Putnam as the authorized 
commander. Our next witness is the Rev. Jos. Thaxter, 
of Edgarton, who, in his letter A.D. 1818, says, " On 
the evening of the 16th June, Col. Prescott and Col. 
Bridge, with their regiments, under the direction of Gen. 
Putnam, took possession of Breed's Hill, and threw up 
a fort or intrenchment." We have looked in vain into the 
author's book for the name of Thaxter, that most venerable 
and interesting old man eloquent, and minister of the Most 
High, who, at the time of the battle, was chaplain in the 
army, and, while the battle raged, was wrestling Avith 
the Lord in prayer for victory ; and, in 1825, with head as 
white and heart as unsullied as the driven snow, appeared 
again on the battle-field at the jubilee, and laying of the 
corner-stone for the monument, to bear up to the throne 
of grace the thanks of the hundred thousand who were 
present, for the very success that he had prayed for in '75. 
The author has devoted twenty-two pages to this jubilee and 

* OfKiUingley. 
t His pamphlet generally, especially page 13. 



27 

monument, without one syllable to spare for the patriotism, 
eloquence, and unction of this most interesting relic of olden 
time, or for the mention of any religious service whatsoever 
on the occasion. He dwells on Webster's eloquent address 
to the sovereign people, without the slightest notice of any 
address to the Sovereign of the universe. The neglect of 
all religious service on the occasion will be considered, by 
all those who give credit to the author's history, as a serious 
imputation on our national character. 

All this perfectly decisive testimony of Putnam's com- 
mand is fully confirmed by the whole of his conduct during 
the day after he left Gen. Ward at dawn, who promised 
to send on a reinforcement. The breastwork at the rail- 
fence was built under Putnam's orders by the Connecticut 
and a few Massachusetts troops, though Frothingham does 
not give him the credit of it. He acknowledges it was 
built by Knowlton and the troops under him, and that 
Judge Grosvenor says Gen. Putnam placed them there. 
Adj. -Gen. Keyes, then lieutenant in Grosvenor's company, 
says the same. Col. Putnam's memoir states that his father 
placed them there, and ordered them to make the best pre- 
paration in their power for defence. Col. Bancroft and Mr. 
Josiah Cleveland,*" as mentioned before, and Messrs. Aaron 
Smithf and WiUiam Low,:|: all of them present and in the 
battle, say expressly Putnam built it ; and Low adds, Putnam 
took a rail on his shoulder, and ordered every man to do the 
same and build the breastwork. Greater service than this 
was never performed by Putnam for his country, nor greater 
service by him or any one at Bunker Hill. There were inge- 
nuity, knowledge of position, and generalship in it, that have 
secured for him immortal honor, and the warmest gratitude 
of all his countrymen to the latest posterity. Without this 
defence, the overwhelming force of the enemy would have 
flanked, surrounded, and vanquished our ill-equipped troops 
instantly. There was scarcely a regiment, corps, or in- 
dividual of the army, that Putnam did not personally 

* Of Canterbury and Osweqo. f Shrewsbury. j Gloucester. 



28 

command, direct, or encourage. The reinforcements not 
arriving, he galloped back to Ward's quarters to obtain 
them. He ordered Doolittle's regiment* to go on at nine 
o'clock ; ordered Stark's regiment to the lines, and reserved 
a part of it to intrench on Bunker Hill ; led on Wood- 
bridge's and Brewer's regiments ; ordered Gardner's to 
build intrenchments on Bunker Hill ; he ordered the com- 
panies of Little's regiment to their posts ; and Ford's 
company of Bridge's regiment he ordered to draw Callen- 
der's deserted cannon to the line. Ford, though no 
submissive man, obeyed with the greatest reluctance, his 
company being infantry, and Putnam fired the pieces him- 
self; some of the soldiers exclaiming that he made a lane, 
others a furrow, through the enemy. He beat, cut, and 
thrust with his sword a number of the soldiers who were 
backward and cowardly, broke his sword over a dastardly 
officer of Gerrish's regiment, and compelled Capt. Callen- 
der to do his duty by threatening him with instant death. 
During the raging of the battle, frothing at the mouth from 
his vociferations, and his horse covered with foam, he was 
galloping from end to end of the line, encouraging, direct- 
ing, and commanding everybody. My townsman Bag- 
ley, who w^as fighting at the time at the breastwork, and 
others, say, in their simple language, " he had a very encou- 
raging look." In the language of one of Shakspeare's 
characters, — 

" He outfaced the brow of bragging horror ; 
So that inferior men, who borrow their behavior 
From the great, grew great by his example, 
And put on the spirit of dauntless resohition." 

And we say the same of Prescott. When Putnam could 
no longer prevent the retreat of his troops, he was one of the 
last in the rear. He told Whittemore, an old companion of 
the former war, he would rally again directly, as he attempted 
to do at his slight intrenchments on Bunker Hill, where 

* Letter of Capt. Ilolden, of Leicester. 



29 

he obstinately remained till even the Leonidas company of 
Charlestown, and Trevett's noble corps, left him alone. But, 
even then, Gen. Putnam it was who saved the honor of his 
country, as he had already secured for her all the advantages 
of victory in the battle, by rallying his troops again on Pros- 
pect Hill within cannon-shot of the enemy, Avho did not dare 
to follow him ; and he made a drawn battle of it. 

Seventy-five years since, the Battle of Bunker Hill was 
fought. Who the commander was has ever since remained 
a mystery. Maj.-Gen. Ward was the commander-in-chief 
of the army at Cambridge; Maj.-Gen. Warren, the next; 
Brig.-Gen. Putnam, the third in command ; and Col. Pres- 
cott, another officer of the army. Gen. Ward, from head- 
quarters, ordered the preparations for the battle, and the 
general movements and disposition of the troops during the 
day. But, from want of staff officers, he Avas unable to 
ascertain or to direct the particular movements and manoeu- 
vres of the troops during the day. He Avas the commander 
of the general movements out of the field. Had Napoleon, 
Avith his numerous staiT, been in Ward's place, history, Avith- 
out hesitation, would have recorded him the commander. 
Warren* Avas on the field, and, notAvithstanding he declined 
to issue any orders, Avas authorized so to do Avhenever he 
pleased. His situation Avas nearly identical with that of the 
admiral, Avho declined giving any orders to his fleet, and 
merely directed that " every commander of a ship should 
kill his oAvn bird." Warren, then, Avas the authorized, and 
for many years the supposed commander, as he Avas the dis- 
tinguished hero, martyr, and volunteer of the battle. Gen. 
Putnam Avas the actual, and, on Warren's declining, the 
authorized commander of Bunker Hill Battle. He Avas " the 
bright particular star," to Avhich, during all the storm and 
tempest of the battle, every eye Avas turned for guidance and 



* Warren was at "Ward's quarters ; and, on the British coming out, Ward 
called him from his bed, as he promised to do, to go to Bunker Hill without 
anj' known restriction. 



30 



for victory. Col. Prescott* was commander at Bunker Hill 
the night before the battle, and the next day till Gen. Putnam 
came on with the reinforcements ; and, during the battle, 
the commander at the redoubt. He erected his works with 
his detachment of one thousand men, under a sheet of fire 
from the enemy like a volcano, and defended them after- 
wards most heroically to the latest moment of desperation. 
He immortalized his name. There were, then, four who in 
some sense participated in the command of Bunker Hill 
Battle ; hence the multiplied mistakes on the subject. It 
may be equally impossible to demonstrate who was exclu- 
sively the commander, as to discover the author of Junius, 
or birthplace of Homer. It was our duty not the less to 
make the attempt ; as we have done with the greatest diffi- 
dence, considering it a forlorn hope. 

* The author says, Judge Prescott's understanding and belief was, that 
the order to his father was in Avriting, — a very natural supposition for that 
eminent lawyer ; but "Ward had no adjutant-general to make out orders. 
His order to Col. Scammans on the I7th June was verbal : " Go where the 
fighting is." And that to Prescott on the 16th Avas probably not more 
formal, or in writing: it could be only, "Go where the intrenching is." 
(See Appendix.) 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



Page 7. 

AccoEDiNG to Hon. Jos. Allen, late of Worcester, Samuel 
Adams, the proscribed patriot, said, " I have heard some people 
find fault with Gen. Ward, for intrenching on Breed's Hill, so 
near the enemy, without any fortifications in their rear ; but the 
world does not know how much that man is to be justified for so 
doing ; for he had secret intelligence from Boston, by means of 
spies, that the British were about to take possession of Dorchester 
Heights; and, to divert them from their object, a close approach to 
the enemy was made by intrenching on Breed's Hill, which had 
the desired efiect, until the provincials could take possession of 
Dorchester Heights." 

Page 12. 

Col. Sargent was born at Salem, in 1745, but resided in early 
life at Cape Ann, and was rugged as the rocky mountains there. 
From his continual intercourse, by sea, between the Cape and the 
Capital, he acquired the additional roughness and hardihood of the 
mariner, and was not mollified by his fierce disputes with the 
government and tories in Boston. His schooling in the tented 
field lent the last finish to his character : he was a perfect Iron- 
sides, and loved fighting as he loved his eyes. Learning from his 
brother, Avho was a tory, that he was proscribed by Gov. Hutchin- 
son, he made his escape into New Hampshire, where he raised a 



34 

regiment, to repay the governor's compliment, by assisting to 
blockade Gov. Gage. When Washington departed for New York, 
Sargent remained at Boston under Gen. Ward, who, Sargent says, 
knowing his opinion of him, placed him as far off as he could, in 
command of the castle and islands. Though the British had 
been driven off, he contrived to find fighting, which he thus 
describes : — 

" Early in April, on Fast Day, while we were going to meeting, 
an alarm gun was fired from the Castle. I repaired to Long 
Wharf, and manned my barge with forty men. Proceeding down, 
I observed a ship and three schooners making for Shirley Point, 
and immediately proceeded to Pudding Point Channel, and tooTc 
charge of piloting her through the Narrows. But Mr. Knox and 
Capt. D, Martin coming on board, Knox being the branch pilot, I 
gave up my command, and in a few moments he ran the ship on a 
spit of sand, which I cautioned him of. We then collected all the 
boats, and loaded with powder from the ship, and sent them to 
town. There were then lying in Nantasket Road, the ' Rainbow,' 
of fifty guns ; ' Dawson,' of fourteen ; and a schooner, tender to 
the ' Rainbow,' They made no attempt to succor the ship during 
the day ; but I expected they would in the night, and warned Capt. 
Mugford and the other captains to be very vigilant. I left on 
board the ship a captain and two subalterns, with forty men, and 
returned to my quarters. In the night, the British attempted to 
retake the ship, or destroy her. They came with five boats full of 
men, and the largest laid the ship alongside. Credit is due to 
Daniel Malcom, who threw a rope over the boat's mainmast, and 
hauled her in till her halyards could be seized by those on board 
the ship ; by which the boat was filled and sunk, and sixty men 
■were put to their paddles, most of whom were drowned. A heavy 
fire from our soldiers obliged them to make a shameful retreat. 
They fired a great number of shot at us without effect. She was 
a most valuable prize, being fully loaded with military stores. We 
were very short of them, and Lord North could not have done us 
a greater service." 

The next day. Gen. Ward inquired whether Sargent could drive 
the enemy from Nantasket. He informed him, that his cannon 
were too small ; but. Ward wishing him to make the experiment, 
he repaired in the night to Long Island with three hundrgd men, 
erected breastworks before light, and in the morning saluted the 



35 

" Rainbow " with a shot, which struck her on the quarter, carrying 
away some of her upper works ; and excited so great a panic in the 
enemy, that they instantly towed out, and, the wind springing up, 
sailed off with the utmost despatch. Sargent, satisfied with their 
movements, was too prudent to betray his weakness by firing a 
second time. Crowned with these victories, in July, 1776, he left 
Boston for New York, with the only full regiment then formed, 
numbering, officers and men, seven hundred and twenty-seven. 
And, by December, he had used up this regiment, by continual 
and desperate fighting, at Harlem Heights, Fort Washington, 
White Plains, and by casualties ; one hundred and ninety-five of 
them only were left, to tell the melancholy fate of their comrades. 
So ardent was Sargent's patriotism, that, many years after the 
peace, being in Boston on Sunday, he went to church with his half- 
brother, Daniel Sargent, Esq. and took his seat, before he per- 
ceived that his own brother, from Halifax, who had been a tory 
and refugee, was in the same pesv with him. The moment he dis- 
covered this, he seized his three-cornered hat, and stalked out of 
church ; vociferating afterwards, that the same roof should never 

cover such a tory as his brother was, and himself. He died 

1828. 

Page 18. 

The following description of Putnam was not intended for pub- 
lication ; but that lends it the highest interest. Judge Dana, a 
senator of the United States from Maine, was a grandson of Put- 
nam, and remarks in his letter, 1818, that he had just been to visit 
his aunt Waldo, Gen. Putnam's daughter ; and then gives the fol- 
lowing description of the general : — 

" In his person, for height, about the middle size ; very erect ; 
thickset, muscular, and firm in every part. His countenance was 
open, strong, and animated ; the features of his face large, well- 
proportioned to each other, and to his whole frame ; his teeth fair 
and sound till death. His organs and senses were all exactly 
fitted for a warrior ; he heard quickly, saw to an immense distance ; 
and, though he sometimes stammered in conversation, his voice 
was remarkably heavy, strong, and commanding. Though face- 
tious and dispassionate in private, when animated in the heat of 
battle, his countenance was fierce and terrible, and his voice like 



36 

thunder. His whole manner was admirably calculated to inspire 
his soldiers with courage and confidence, and his enemy with terror. 
The faculties of his mind were not inferior to those of his body ; 
his penetration was acute, his decision rapid, yet remarkably cor- 
rect ; and the more desperate his situation, the more collected and 
undaunted. With the courage of a lion, he had a heart that 
melted at the sight of distress ; he could never witness suffering 
in any human being, without becoming a sufferer himself ; even 
the operation of blood-letting has caused him to faint. In viewing 
the field of battle, his distress was exquisite, until he had afforded 
friend or foe all the relief in his power. Once after a battle, on 
examining a bullet-wound through the head of a favorite officer, 
Capt. Whiting, who died on the field, he fainted, and was taken up 
for dead. Martial music roused him to the highest pitch ; while 
solemn, sacred music set him into tears. In his disposition he 
was open and generous, almost to a fault ; he never disguised ; and 
in the social relations of life he was never excelled." 

Page 29. 

One of the most magnificent monuments that ever bore the 
name of any man, and which will transmit the name of Warren, 
in grateful and glorious remembrance, down to the latest posterity, 
, has been erected in Boston Harbor. Fort Warren, for strength, 
grandeur, and scientific perfection, is one of the masterpieces of 
military art ; and it will be highly gratifying to all the countrymen 
of Col. Thayer, — that most amiable, scientific, and distinguished 
engineer, by whom it was constructed, — that his name will be for 
ever so honorably and deservedly associated with that of Warren. 
Both were born in the vicinity of Boston. 

Page 30. 

If we may be excused for speaking from a very slight experi- 
ence, we should say, there is no reason to suppose that any of 
Ward's orders to his officers, on the occasion of the battle, were in 
writing. In 1814, when the British forces, freed from European 
service, were pouring into Canada, and apprehensions were enter- 
tained that they would make their way into our country, we joined 
the army under Gen. Izard, on the Champlain frontier, as one of 



37 

the Massachusetts volunteers, and served in his staff through the 
campaign as topographical engineer. The general was soon ordered 
to the Niagara frontier, to save Gen. Brown from Drummond's 
superior force, which we found posted on the north bank of the 
Chippewa River, and with very formidable fortifications along 
the southern shore likewise. Gen. Izard, finding that the enemy's 
position was unassailable in front, was desirous of discovering 
whether the British fleet, with the large frigate they had been 
building, which was to give them the mastery over Commodore 
Chauncey, was out on Lake Ontario, so as to prevent him from 
getting on the enemy's flank or rear. To gain this information, 
he ordered me, and not in writing, to go with a small detachment 
of infantry across the Niagara River in a boat, and proceed to the 
vicinity of Lake Ontario, to obtain the requisite information. 
That region was abandoned to the enemy, and deserted by all 
the Americans, excepting a few men who frequented it occasionally, 
to look after their property, though their fine crops were rotting 
on the ground. We embarked on the Canada side of the Niagara ; 
and, as we neared the opposite shore, we were challenged by a 
body of musketeers demanding who we were. Neither party had 
any uniform, or other badge of nationality ; and as they, being on 
terra jirma, had us at a great disadvantage, my tactic was to gain 
time, while we were fast approaching the shore. But as I was only 
a soldier " by the book," and very little of that, I was confounded 
with my situation. Having often pondered on Maj. Andre's egre- 
gious indiscretion, in disclosing to his captors Avho he Avas, in 
place of claiming to be an American, which would have insured his 
safety, I was disposed to avoid his mistake, and pass our party off 
for English. But no simile goes on all-fours. In our case, had I 
guessed wrong as to their character, they would have responded 
with their guns. To gain time, I cried out, " Friends ! " but that 
trick did not take ; their muskets were levelled at us, and they 
swore they would fire, if we did not answer them directly. We 
were prepared for them, and I was compelled to show our colors. 
I cried out, " Americans ! " when they hailed us, " Brothers ! " to our 
great delight. We soon gained the information we were in pur- 
suit of, and had the melancholy though magnificent view, with our 
glass, of the British fleet in the offing, on Lake Ontario. We 
reported these unpleasant tidings to Gen. Izard; and his whole 
plan of campaign was frustrated, and the war virtually over. The 



38 

general, in his dilemma, consulted one of the most distinguished 
officers in the army, and as great a military genius prohably as the 
world has produced, — young Col. M'Cree, of the engineers. On 
our arrival at Fort Erie, we found him in Gen. Brown's staff; 
and he had really been the principal staff on whicii Brown had 
leaned to gain his brilliant success on the Niagara frontier. Gen. 
Izard Avas desirous of reaping the same advantage from M'Cree, 
who advised to a very ingenious and scientific expedient to extri- 
cate the general from his embarrassment. It was to construct a 
floating bridge at some distance above the enemy, on our side of 
the Chippewa, with one end fastened on our side, while the rest 
of the bridge was to be floated off into the river ; and the other 
end, when the current had carried it to the opposite shore, to be 
attached there, for our army to pass over. But Gen. Brown, once 
relieved by Izard from Drummond's superior force, seemed not at 
all disposed to assist him to gain any laurels in return. There 
was a marked jealousy and coldness between those officers, that 
precluded any joint enterprise of theirs from svicceeding. 

Brig. -Gen. Totten, now head of the engineer department, was a 
young engineer in Gen. Izard's staff, and gained his first laurels 
at Plattsburgh. The forts he built there would have done him 
honor, even had he then gained his present high advancement. 
With the most unmanageable material, the sand of Plattsburgh, 
he contrived, with the aid of carpentry, to construct his forts with 
a skill, science, and ingenuity that would have rendered them im- 
pregnable. Gen. Izard declared, against the overwhelming force of 
Prevost, even if it had not been crippled by the naval victory of 
the gallant Com. M'Donough. When we left Plattsburgh for Fort 
Erie, Totten remained behind to test and fight his own works, 
which he did with great eclat. Winstanley, the gallant civil 
engineer, who bravely dared to prove his own light-house against 
as fierce an elemental strife as ever raged, fell a noble sacrifice to 
an inscrutable decree of Providence ; but Totten, more fortunate, 
found his works were not to be subdued by man. 

Page 30. 

The author thinks we are mistaken as to the number of cannon 
belonging to the corps of artillery at Cambridge. Our informants, 
in 1818, were Col. Popkin and Capt. Trevett, captains in the 



39 

corps ; and they are so well known yet, from their high character, 
and the public stations they held, that we need say no more of 
their testimony. Capt. Trevett will be recollected as the distin- 
guished officer in the battle, and for a great number of years 
commander of the revenue cutter at Boston. Col. Popkin was 
born at Boston, of Welsh descent. He had been in Paddock's 
corps, was a major in Greaton's regiment, and in the battle of 
White Plains ; in the engagements at Saratoga as Aid to Gen. 
Lincoln ; afterwards lieutenant-colonel of artillery under Crane, 
and left the army at the peace a colonel. He was a custom-house 
officer under Gen. Lincoln, in 1789, and remained in office till his 
decease, 1827, aged eighty-four. He was father of the learned, 
beloved, and respected Professor John S. Popkin, of Harvard 
University, for more than half a century past dear to all the friends 
of that institution, and whose sermons would do honor to any man. 

Page 30. 

Gen. Burbeck, who was with the army at the time of the battle, 
says, the following is an accurate description of Col. Prescott : — 
" Figure to yourself a man of sixty, six feet high, and somewhat 
rQund-shouldered, sunburned from exposure, with coarse leather 
shoes, and blue stockings, coarse home-spun cloth small-clothes, a 
red waistcoat, and a calico banian, answering to the sack worn at_ 
the present day, a three-cornered hat with a red cockade, and a 
bandoleer, or belt, with a sword hung high up under the left arm. 
You will say that it is a complete caricature ; but such was the 
fact, and such was the dress of the heroes who fought at the Battle 
of Bunker Hill." 

" On the day of the battle," Burbeck says, " Gen. Putnam rode 
between Charlestown and Cambridge without a coat, in his shirt 
sleeves, and an old white felt hat on, to report to Gen. Ward, and 
to consult on farther operations."* 

* June 15, '75, a committee of Mass. Congress report Little's regiment 
to have eight companies, 509 men, 382 of them with bayonets, and seven of 
the companies at Cambridge. Little's orderly book is extant. 

The British fired without aim, holding their guns below the shoulder, as, 
by reason of the recoil, they did in ovir war of 1812. 

We conclude, as we commenced, mth expressing our belief in the inten- 
tional honor and honesty of the author. 



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